Scott Dorsey wrote:

For a while (post 1980) they appeared on some of the gear that was intended
for use by relatively untrained operators, but for the most part it wasn't
widespread. Mostly because gear that was intended for skilled users (and
I put the R-390 in that category) may as well use the more accurate dB
metering, and gear that was intended for unskilled users pretty much didn't
have metering at all (like most field radios).

I had a feeling there might be a few "latter day" examples of mil
S-meters - but, yes I quite agree - the few BA receivers I'm familiar
with that have meters (390 series, WWR-2, etc.) are dB while the vast
majority of BA receivers don't have any signal strength meter at all
(ARC 5, 348, 654, and so on).

There is a 6 dB mil standard for the things, and I'll dig it up because
I have it somewhere in my office. The fact that it doesn't get used much
if at all is quite true, though.

That's what I'm interested in - I did a quick (very quick) scan through
several of the manuals I have here (Navy Electronics Tech 3 & 2 parts 1
& 2; Basic Electronics; EIMB Reference Data, EIMB Communications
(incomplete); EIMB TM&P)- and while just about every manner of dB is
covered- I didn't spot a single mention of S-Units. I must note,
however - they are from my time in the Navy - which was the 1970s- and
that's why I have allowed that S-units may have come into common use in
the military in sometime since 1980.

best regards...
--
randy guttery

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